In the Wake of Proposition 8

Travelling through facebook I happened across a discussion started by Damali Ayo regarding interviews with Sean Penn and Josh Brolin on Charlie Rose and some problematic things that the actors said. Conversation threads also included race and religion's impact on the outcome in the voting on Prop 8 in California. In the interview (which I just watched online), Brolin said he was researching voting and demographics after the vote on the proposition and then spoke about African American and Latino voters impact. As if they were the main factor, as if race and sexuality are mutually exclusive and people of color aren't part of the GLBTQ community and its activism, and as if he is somehow in an intellectual position to speak about communities of color while not bothering to address white homophobia.

Needless to say it sparked interesting responses.

Issues of human rights and access are serious, and it frightens me that more aren't outraged by the reality of the implications of legalized and voter approved discrimination. So I wrote something in response to the topic and I thought that I would also post it here too, because more than ever we must speak out on that which is unjust. Silence is complicity.

Here's what I posted:

I think we need to analyze the proposition press feedback on the level of its intentions: division and deception. By placing blame on folks of color, and stereotyping them as church going homophobes, it erases culpability of the white heterosexist patriarchy. This same so-called democracy which says church and state are supposedly separate, yet through extensive campaign investment a specific religious org. (Mormon leadership based out of state) was able to influence taking away people's rights. If the only argument against something is "religious" based, that alone should render it null and void if state and religion are separate.

And in regards to the Bible and Jesus, what is written and followed and preached and absorbed, is filtered through a King who clearly wouldn't be inclined to nurture rebellion and disobedience and instructed translators to make the appropriate adjustments and omissions. They even erased Jesus' melanin! So we cannot blindly assume the text truly represents accurately the teachings of the visionaries, revolutionaries, historians, teachers, and community leaders who inspire people throughout time to rise up against oppression and be better people.

The inner and outward aspects revolution are ancient. The personal transformation internally into higher states of consciousness and awareness so we can impact more positively our circles/communities and the wider world. And the external aspects of challenging individuals and the systems of greed, industry and systems of power, which are designed to privilege the few over the needs and rights of the masses of people.

With all that said, this should be a wake up call where disenfranchised folks from various communities are reminded that more than ever our solidarity and unity based on mutual respect for each other's inalienable human rights is where we will find our strength.

"If they come for us at night, they will come for you in the morning."

One aim, one struggle- for human rights and self-determination, and a healthy planet.